“So you didn’t know?” He shook his head. “This is a test, I know it,” I said. “I will find out who and why. Believe me.”

  This time, his head bobbed. But he didn’t confirm or deny anything.

  “This will never happen on your watch ever again, though, right?” I grabbed the bag, found the water, and drank it down fast.

  “No,” he said. “This will never, ever happen again. Not on my watch.”

  I let my eyes close again. This time, the hum of the engine, this slow and steady, gave me some relief, too. It settled me. Settled me almost to sleep.

  I messaged Malaki, Apex said.

  What? I almost nearly shot out my chair.

  She’s going to wait for you in Sector Two.

  I was in all kinds of trouble without this on top of it. I let the world drift, and the next moment, Aden was shaking me awake. “We’re not far off. I think you should take it in. I’m feeling a little tired.” He yawned.

  “Did I sleep all this way?”

  “Yes, but you needed it. Thank you.”

  “Thank you,” I said, the pounding in my head less but still far too high. “I did need it.” I took the controls back off him, angling the Bumble slightly better.

  He noted the change. “How’s the headache?”

  “Err,” I replied.

  “That’s not good. You should get it seen to.”

  “I know,” I said. “I will, soon as possible.”

  As soon as possible was a big decision I had already made. I needed the X16.

  It wasn’t long before we were over Sector Two, and I was landing nice and easy.

  Easy as in, I bumped the ground hard and scratched the paintwork, but I didn’t care.

  That was one long night I did not want to repeat.

  I saw a figure standing at the back of the hangar as we were wheeled in, the blades slowing before anyone dared to approach.

  I hopped out, glanced at Aden, who said, “I’d be happy to fly with you anytime, Airman Korolyov.”

  “Same.” He nodded and held his hand out for me. “And Justin?”

  We shook hands. “He made a mistake; it wasn’t his fault we also had a fuel leak.”

  “You trust him?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Aden said. He didn’t hesitate with that answer. I took that to heart. “I need to get off, debrief, and sleep for a week.”

  “Same.” Though I knew I didn’t have a chance. We were already outbound tomorrow. I checked the time, and no, today. Fuck.

  I moved to the back of the hangar, Malaki coming into view. She was bundled in a tight jacket. One I’d not seen before. She cast her eyes up and down, shook her head but feigned a smile. “Come on,” she said, holding an arm out for me. “I’ve got you a spot to rest in. We’ll stay there the rest of this morning and meet the others later, just before the flight.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Very sure, no talking. We have time for that later.”

  I nodded, and she linked her arm with mine. I never noted where we were going or the flashing icon for messages at the corner of my HUD. No sooner we were where we were going than I stripped with Malaki’s help and promptly fell asleep on the double bed.

  ***

  I stretched out in bed, and my back cracked. When I opened my eyes, Malaki was staring straight at me and not the kind stare.

  “Headache?” she asked.

  It took me a second to see if it was still actually there. “Yeah.”

  “What level?”

  “Eight.

  Malaki grimaced, her nose scrunching. “I’ll message Lacy. She can meet us at our base before we pick our ride to North Defense.”

  “I suck.” I lowered my head, shame washing over me.

  “No,” Malaki said. “You do not. I got the report from Justin while you slept. You saved their asses, all of them. Even without tech, you knew something was vastly off, you knew something was against you, and you did the right things at the right time. Without that judgment, you might not have made it back. Any of you.”

  I frowned. “I’m surprised he admitted it.”

  “He didn’t have a choice. When both of your techs came online, it will have been recorded. There really will be an investigation.”

  “Michaels?” I asked. No answer.

  My stomach growled. “We got time to eat?”

  Malaki shook her head. “Not here, but we can on the way.”

  My stomach growled even louder, and she laughed. “Come on, I’ll make sure it’s a good one. There are some nice takeout places here before we head back under security.”

  “How did you get in here?”

  Malaki frowned. “I spoke to my father,” she simply said, adding a relatively low “Ugh…”

  “Ugh,” I copied her. “I can see my reputation with him on a slippery downward slope, and I didn’t even initialize it.”

  If this test wasn’t Michaels, it was the general.

  The general, Apex said.

  You know that? I asked him.

  He asked me for your AI’s report too.

  Fuck…

  Malaki opened the door, and the cool air from outside drifted in. I pulled my coat over my flight suit. “Gee, I don’t know where that wind comes from some days.”

  “The ocean,” she said. “Can’t stop it all.”

  I rolled my eyes and followed her to a breakfast takeout truck.

  The smell had me drooling, and I ordered two freshly made breakfast pancakes just for me. Malaki sat across from me in the car on the way back and watched me eat both while picking at hers.

  “Are you okay?”

  “You need the eyepiece,” she said. “Before the TAP.”

  I swallowed some food with a swig of my drink. “I know,” I replied. “They’re getting worse, not better. Everyone says they get better but don’t seem to be for me.”

  “Message Master Sergeant West and ask him to swap before he does any organizing.”

  “You think he will?”

  “They’re expensive and take a lot to get in, so yes.”

  I quickly thought out a message for West and sent it off.

  The call came in a moment later. “Are you fit for this job?” he asked without even a hello when I answered.

  “I am fit enough,” I said. “But I won’t be for long if I carry on like this. There’s a lot of thinking and moving parts, not just with the helo but with everything around me. The X1 sees more of this world and into VR that we don’t, and it fucking hurts.”

  He didn’t chastise me for my directness or change my mind. “I’ll organize it as soon as I can. It will be by the end of the month, in your term time off.”

  Shit, I needed that time to still catch up on things, not be incapacitated.

  “Okay,” I said. “Thank you, sir.”

  “You have the next few weekends of hard tasks ahead of you. Thank me when the opp’s done and you’re healing. Then let’s see where you’re going.”

  “To the future.”

  “Always.” And he was gone.

  53

  “How soon?” Malaki asked and stole the rest of my breakfast wrap off me.

  I glared at her but relented. After all, she rescued me from Sector Two and put me up in a lovely hotel. “End of the month he said.”

  “Good, that’s not too far off, but it seems far enough, I bet.”

  I nodded, it really did. “I’ll take it as easy as I can until then.”

  “You better.” She tore off a corner of the wrap and, popping it in her mouth, chewed it. “I’ve only ever known one person get up past a ten, which wasn’t pretty.”

  “I know, I’ve looked into it,” I said, my voice low. The reports I’d seen were exactly that, not pretty at all. In fact, I chastised myself even more because I couldn’t carry on like this.

  “I’ve been stupid,” I confessed a while later.

  Malaki nodded her head just a little. “You’ve been trying your best. You’re so much like me, you hate admitting defeat. Pain like that, long term, sure you get used to it, but it means dropping out and more than likely a psych ward when it gets higher and drives you insane.” She tore off some more wrap and sighed. “It is rare, but it happens. Why do you think I’ve been watching you, so has the whole team?”

  “I didn’t know,” I said and rubbed my hand over my once-more growing stubble. I wish there was something in the system nites that would stop this shit. Shaving every day, growing a beard…it was all a chore.

  “It’s not something they talk about unless you’re an eight constantly. You’ve been on and off an eight and above for a few weeks.”

  “You really were tracking them.”

  “Rus.” She leaned forward and touched my knee. “I care. We all care, and who else is supposed to have your back but your team? We just can’t put you or us at risk anymore. This is pushing it too far. We need to sort it, right?”

  “Yeah.” I smiled at her, putting my hand on hers. “Thanks. After last night’s debacle, let’s hope this weekend with Justin is enough to satisfy Master Sergeant West, pay for our upgrades, and be easy on my brain cells.”

  “I doubt it,” Malaki said. “We’re heading to Grange Foods and beyond. Past the wall, this is into their lands.”

  “Their lands. You mean the critters?”

  “Yes, the only way Artem can sustain itself is by growing. The farms are our biggest asset and our easiest resource to break, at least while they’re building. They need defense, lots of it.”

  “To do that, they must clear anything heading our way back.”

  “Exactly. This is as far out as it gets patrol-wise.”

  I shuddered and not from the cold. “Air bus over to Shore Farm, pick up our own, and then out into the wild?”

  “Yes, you can sleep some more. Once Lacy’s cleared some of the pain, we’ll probably sleep as much as possible there. It’s a long trip on a bumpy ole helo.”

  “They’re not so old, just bumpy.”

  “Old,” Malaki said. “So old it’s a wonder some of them still fly.”

  “They have to save funds where they can.,” I guessed. “Bout time they stopped doing that and put something into recycling the older vehicles.”

  “Maybe they can’t?”

  Malaki put a hand to her mouth.

  Did I just?

  Yes, Apex said. It’s not just pilots they’re struggling with replacing.

  Artem was more than struggling. Resources were needed as fast as food. It was outgrowing itself, and that meant only one possible outcome.

  Total chaos when people started really starving.

  “Better get more farms up and running,” I said. “With us there, it should be much smoother for them, right?”

  Malaki grinned. “Yes, it should. The more, the merrier.”

  “Any idea what kind of helos we’ll get there?”

  Her grin spread. “That I had to find out. Nothing you’ve flown before, but they’re not too far off what I’ve had access to. They’re CSR adaptions.”

  “Sounds like a good one,” I said. “Any details—”

  Malaki fired over the 3D files for them before I even finished my sentence. “You’re welcome.”

  I opened up the file, and my mouth dropped. “Level three?”

  “Yes,” she said. “You’re going to be jumping into level two anyway. You bypassed one almost entirely.”

  “I know, but…” I went to take a swig of drink.

  “But nothing. You could handle a Bumble even if it had no engine.”

  I promptly spat out the drink all over her. “That’s taking it a little far,” I said. “It has to at least have something that makes it go vroom.”

  Malaki got the giggles and wiped the liquid from her pants. “Vroom.”

  “It’s a lot of buttons,” I said, studying the cockpit more than anything else. “My head’s hurting just looking at it.”

  “I’ll manage it for now. It has DP nodes.”

  I frowned and focused on the DPs chair. It did, and they sparkled back at me. Begging me. “I don’t have any.” That stung. I knew Silao had a TAP already; it was in his file notes. “What can Silao handle?”

  “He’s only had this TAP fitted this year. Honestly, this might be too much even for him. But…probably two, three drones at least.”

  “You think he won’t use them?” I can hope right?

  Would you not use them? Apex shot back.

  “I’m sure he can handle something. If you could, you’d try, even without training, right?”

  “Yeah.” I laughed at her echoing Apex. “You know I would.”

  “Then expect him to do what he can and watch out for them. We’ve enough on our plates without anything else out there going wrong.”

  “It will take us a while to get used to all this.”

  “We’ll cope.”

  She was right, of course, and I wouldn’t let our new squad down.

  ***

  Lacy treated me for as long as she could before we had to get the overnight air bus to Shore Farm. The air bus was precisely that, packed. Many people were heading out for the weekend work, not just to the new sites.

  Dale nodded my way, coming over for a brief chat. “Going elsewhere?”

  “Yeah, we’ve got a bigger task,” I replied, feeling guilty. He helped me a lot. Probably a lot more than he thought he had.

  I held my hand out to him. “If you ever need someone with more oomph, just ask.”

  “I will,” he said, taking my hand with a smile.

  “You never wanted to do more?”

  “No way, I’m happily settled in. The others with drive and a need to kill take the outer city jobs.”

  The need to kill.

  Those words were not what I was expecting.

  “Good luck out there,” he said, then let go of my hand and moved away.

  When everyone else was asleep, I knocked for Justin. I didn’t think he’d answer me at first. But he did eventually. “You good?”

  “What do you care?” I could see his face flush from over here. He looked away.

  “Look, I do,” I said. “You were right about a lot of things. Especially about leading. Thank you for seeing I was right.”

  “You’ll only survive out there if you see your faults along with your strengths.”

  Fuck me, he was a dick. But he was a smart dick.

  “Again, you’re right.”

  This time, he looked back at me. “Oh?”

  “I made mistakes too. I’ve made my report. I’ll send it to you, and you can see them.” I passed over the compiled files I’d also sent through to command when they’d asked for it. The operation might have been “off the grid,” but someone’s name was on the orders. I wouldn’t lie to anyone for anything, and my report was clear.

  Justin was silent for a while, I guess reading through it. “I’ll see you down there,” he said. “The CSR 99 is going to be tough; you can’t overcompensate like you did with the Bumble. This is much bigger. Twice the size.”

  “I know,” I said. “Keep Silao under control with his DP elements, and I’ll do my best to not flip it into the dirt when Mal needs a break.”

  Justin let out a snort, and I had to stifle my own. “If I can keep Silao off those drones, it will be a miracle. I’ll try, though.”

  Silence drifted through the comms.

  “Rus,” he said, his tone softer. “Seriously, thank you. That trip could have cost us—me—dearly.”

  Then he was gone. He turned away, put his head back, and I did the same.

  Apex? I asked. Get me any details you can on the CSR 99. The more, the better.

  Downloading all I can now, he replied.

  As the details popped up, we both read the file together.

  SAR 770 and CSR 99

  Statistics with DP seating.

  General

  Crew: 4 (two pilots, two special mission aviators/aerial gunners)

  Capacity: a maximum crew of six/eight-twelve troops/litters and/or other cargo

  Length:64 ft, 10 in (19.76 m)

  Height:16 ft, 8 in (5.08 m)

  Empty Weight:16,000 lb (7,257 kg)

  Max Takeoff Weight:22,000 lb (9,979 kg)

  Powerplant:2 × General Electric - E44-GE 700 Turboshaft Engines, 1,940 shp (1,450 kW) each

  Main Rotor Diameter:52 ft, 8 in (16.05 m)

  Performance

  Maximum Speed:193 kn (222 mph, 357 km/h)

  Cruise Speed:159 kn (183 mph, 294 km/h)

  Range:324 nmi (373 mi, 600 km)

  Ferry Range:441 nmi (507 mi, 817 km)

  Service Ceiling:14,000 ft (4,300 m)

  Weapons

  2x 10.00mm machine guns - Firing slugs with explosive compounds

  Drone Capable

  1x Drone Pilot seat, with node connections made with gold - to max capacity.

  I let out a whistle. At least it had some extra power if we needed them, and I’d room to grow even without a TAP.

  Do you like it? Apex asked.

  Yeah, I admitted. I really do.

  We landed early on at Grange Foods. It wasn’t so little. One of the largest farms I’d seen. There were so many people here. We were bundled off the massive air bus into smaller air shuttles, though each carried a hundred-plus people, and they took us in several directions. Fast.

  I’d not been this far east of Artem at all before. It was all new to me here.

  This is Artem? Apex asked.

  You’ve access to everything, and you never looked?

  You never looked either, he spat back.

  He was right. I knew my life had been sheltered…but compared to this, though, I said, I never knew how rich we really were.

  I knew how rich I was now. Compared to some people. I had everything…a roof over my head, food, and advanced tech.

  My heart thudded in my chest as I peered out the window and gazed down at the city below. It was nothing like the bustling metropolis I was used to seeing—no beautiful skyscrapers, lush gardens, or greenery. An endless expanse of concrete and towering, run-down buildings that looked like they could crumble at any moment. I couldn’t help but wonder—how did anyone survive down there?

  The journey from Shore Farm had been long and arduous, but as we drew closer to the “south wall,” my eyes were drawn to the gargantuan structure that loomed before us. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, a towering monolith of metal and concrete that seemed to stretch up and up, far beyond the level at which we were flying. I couldn’t help but stare in awe and disbelief. How could something so massive even exist?